Microsoft's Cortana on iOS Review Describes It As A 'Professional Aide' But 'Not a Siri Killer'
Microsoft's Cortana became available for iOS and Android devices earlier this month. After roughly two weeks, Cortana has been pegged against Apple's Siri and these are the results.
Time's John Patrick Pullen reviewed the performance of Microsoft's digital assistant-turned-app in an iPhone. He found that although Cortana is "not a Siri killer," it does perform some functions better than Apple's native personal assistant.
Of course, being the native assistant to the iPhone, Siri can perform certain tasks that Cortana cannot. For instance, dialing phone number, sending texts and emails, or turning Bluetooth can only be done by Siri.
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But Cortana currently has the upperhand when it comes to tweaking the iPhone to cater to any user preference. Cortana does this by maintaining a list of user preferences in a "notebook." In essence, Cortana gets familiar with the user, and over time, gets better at fetching information that will be more relevant to the user than Apple's Siri.
For example, Cortana can take note of a user's food preferences (e.g., Indian food) so that the next time they ask the Microsoft assistant for a place to eat, it will more likely provide information based on that info (a place that offers Indian food on its menu).
Cortana's notebook has 15 categories. These include an About Me category and more interest-based sections such as News, Music, Sports, and Movies & TV.
"Grooming" Cortana may take some time, says Pullen, but it could be worthwhile for certain users. Once set up, however, Cortana can be more proficient at answering repeated questions, something that Siri is still trying to improve at the moment.
Overall, the review suggests Cortana makes it clear that there's room in a user's iPhone for two digital assistants: Siri can be their personal assistant, while Cortana can be their professional aide. Pullen suggests Cortana will be most useful to iPhone owners who work on a Windows PC since being a cross-platform service, it can manage sharing of their data and preferences from their desktops to their iPhones and other devices.
